Fire-escape.



No. 662,875. Pafentd Nav. 27, |900. w! NEwBuRN.

FIRE ESCAPE. (Applictiomled July 7, 1900.

(No Modal.)

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.ans anni? prima WALTER NEWBURN, OF HAMILTON, CANADA.

FIREMESCAIPE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 662,875, dated November27', 1900.

Application filed July 7, 1900. Serial No. 22,812. (No model.)

To ctZVZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER NEWBURN, a citizenv of the United States,residing at Hamilton, in the county of Ventworth and Province ofOntario, Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inFire- Eseapes; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full,clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to improvements in lire-escapes in which a balconyor stage is located at the exterior of `a large building and at the endof the hall or corridor of the upper floors or stories, said balconycapable of being brought out a distance from the burning building toescape lthe heat thereof.

The objects of my invention are, first, to provide a balcony tire-escapecapable of holding a number of people; second, to afford facilitieswhereby the balcony may be drawn out atright angles from the wall of thebuilding to escape the heat ot' the wall and the issue of smoke andiiames from out of the windows, and, third, to provide a balcony orstage at a suitable distance from the building whereon firemen may standto play water on the building. I attain these objects by the mechanismillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure I is a sideelevation of my improved rire-escape partially in section,the balconybeing shown brought out a short distance from the wall of the building.Fig. II is a plan of the same, showing the horizontal casings or guidesfor the parallel arms of the balcony, said casings located in thehallway. Fig. III is an enlarged section near the end of one of the tworigid guides with inclosed slidable arm of the balcony. Fig. IV is anenlarged side elevation of the inner end of one of the two said slidablearms, and Fig. V is a plan of the same.

Similar letters and figures refer to similar parts throughout theseveral views.

In the drawings, A is the balcony or stage, of metallic construction andprovided with a suitable safety-fence 2, of chaste design and of properheight to insure safety to the people on the balcony. The balcony endsof these arms are braced together by transverse bars @,which, togetherwith the arms c, support the floor of the balcony. This balcony islocated on the exterior side ofthe wall B of the building and has twoparallel arms c, which extend into the building a sufficient distance toallow the balcony to be drawn out, say, fifteen feet, more or less, fromthe wall B of the building.

D represents the two side walls of the hall,

`and on the iioor E of the hall` and close to the walls D are thecasings or guides F, rigidly secured to said floor E by means of lugs 4and to the walls D by means of lugs .5. The guides F may be insertedwholly or partially into the floor and also partially inserted in thewalls D. The lower parts of the guides have a series of rollers I-I,which support the arms c of the balcony, and to enable said arms toslide in the guides as easily and freely as possible these rollers willbe suitably positioned in the casings in order to bear the weight of thearms with the balcony when the same is drawn out to its full extent. Thegreatest weight would then be on the rollers nearest to the wall B. Thearms c are provided with rollers J at their inner ends, the peripheresof said rollers protruding' beyond the tops of the arms to engage `withthe upper parts of the guides in order to avoid much friction and toassist the arms in their operation. These rollers are important tofacilitate the operation of the arms. Guy-cables K are employed toassist in supporting the balcony. One end of each of these cables isattached at 6 to the balcony and the other end of each of the cables isattached to the rear and top parts of the arms, as at 7. The centralparts of the cables are elevated and passed through openings in the wallB or doorway, as at 8, and are supported in said openings, which may beformed as smooth bearings for the cables K,`or rollers 9 may be providedto support the cables in said elevated position to support the balcony,which when brought out the said cables follow. To draw the balconyoutward, the end of a cable M is securely attached to the wall B at l0and passes around a cable-pulley N, which is connected to the upper andrear part of an arm c, immediately below the attachment of a guy-cableK. This cable M extends into the balcony, as shown in Figs. I and II ofthe IOO drawings. /Vhen this cable M is drawn outward, the balcony isdrawn outward thereby. In order to draw the balcony in ward-that is,against the Wall B-and opposite the opening O in the wall and at the endof the hallway, one end of a cable P is securely fastened to the upperpart of an arm c of the balcony, and at a short distance from the innerside of the wall B, as at 12, this cable passes around a cable-pulley R,which is connected to a strong bracket S of the wall D. This cableextends to the balcony and must of necessity be of sufficient length inthe balcony to allow of taking hold of the cable when the balcony isbrought outward to its full capacity. When this cable P is drawnoutward, the balcony is drawn inward to the wall B, as previouslystated.

V isa longitudinal opening in the top of the guides F to allow theoperation of the guy cable fastenings and for the connection of thedraw-cable to the arms of the balcony.

It will be noticed that the fence around the balcony has an opening Tfor ingress and that the people may leave the balcony by means ofordinary fire-escapes-for instance, by ladders of various kinds or othermeans. This balcony will take the people from a burning building to asafe distance from the heated wall and from the smoke and flames thatmay issue from out of the windows of the building.

It will be obvious that .when the building is large more than onebalcony or fire-escape may form a permanent attachment to the building.The balcony will be constructed of proportionate dimensions and ofchaste and proper design to suit the requirements of the case. Also therollers H will be free from the bottom of the guides F and the rollers Jwill engage the top of the guides only.

Various changes in the form, proportion, and minor details of thisinvention may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scopethereof. Hence What I claim as myinvention, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-

1. In a lire-escape, a balcony, parallel arms supporting said balconyand extending a distance in the interior of a building, casings orguides for said arms firmly secured to the floor and walls of a hallwayin the building, guy-cables secured to the upper and the rear parts ofthe arms there being longitudinal openings in the tops of said guidesfor the fastenings of the cables to slide in said cables supported onelevated rollers, the outer ends of said cables secured to the balconyto support the same when drawn out, and means in the balcony whereby thesame may be `drawn outward or inward to position.

2. In a fire-escape, a balcony, parallel arms extending from the balconyinto the interior ot' a building, stationary guides for said arms.,lguy-cables Secured to said arms and to the balcony, said cablessuspended over elevated rollers tosupport the balcony, openings in theguides to allow the guy-cable fastenings to operate therein, acable-pulley connected to the upper part of one of said arms, anoperating-cable, one end of the cable attached to the building andpassed over said pulley and extended to the balcony to draw the balconyoutward, as described.

3. A lire-escape comprising horizontal stationary guides, arms capableof sliding in said guides, a balcony on the outer ends of the arms,suspended guy-cables attached to the inner ends of said arms and to theouter parts of the balcony and means in the balcony whereby the same maybe drawn outward and inward to position against t-he wall of thebuilding, as described.

4. A tire-escape, comprisingabalcony, horizontal arms supporting saidbalcony and extending into the interior of the building, parallel andstationaryguides in the building for said arms, rollers in the guides tosupport the arms, rollers at the inner ends of the arms to engage withthe upper parts of the guides, suspended guy-cables attached to the armsand to the balcony, to support the same, and means in the balcony fordrawing the same outward and inward to position, as described.

5. In a iire-escape,abalcony, horizontaland parallel arms, extendingfrom the balcony into the building, stationary guides, rollers in theguides to support the arms, rollers at the inner ends of the arms toengage with the upper parts of the guides, guy-cables loosely suspendedabove said arms and attached to said arms and to the balcony to supportthe same, there being longitudinal openings in the guides to allow theguy-cable fastenings to operate, a cable-pulley connected to the upperpart of one of said arms, an operatingcable, one end of the cableattached to the building and passed said pulley and extended to thebalcony to draw the balcony outward from the building, and anoperating-cable over a pulley above the inner end of a guide, one end ofsaid cable attached to one of said arms and the other end extending toand in the balcony, to draw the frame inward, as described.

In testimony whereof I atlix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WALTER NEWBURN.

Witnesses:

JOHN H. HENDRY, JOHN A. LEGGATT.

IOO

